Conventional deposition techniques may only be suitable for applying a selected material to a small area of a substrate and are time consuming. For instance, photolithography-generated patterns, a common technique, requires a photosensitive material to be exposed to a light for a period of time under an expensive one-to-one photomask that becomes large as the pattern increases in size. After the photosensitive material has cured, the undesired material is removed using a relatively toxic substance. Much of this process must be performed in a clean room for highly controlled production. For reproduction of patterns over an area larger than several inches wide, this process may not be practical or even feasible. Another conventional technique, laser ablation, also has certain drawbacks. Namely, the production rate is slow and is limited by the amount of material to be removed by the focused laser, production costs are high, and is generally not suitable as a technique for preparing large pieces.